image credit: https://www.sabin.scot.nhs.uk/

Looking at cancer incidencies by gender

According to the data from 1996 to 2020 there were a total of 18,091 cancer cases across NHS Borders. Looking here at the gender split you can get an idea of the pattern of cases over time. This data sample contained 9113 females and 8978 males, so there is no real bias either way in terms of the graph below.

Cancer Site breakdown across NHS Borders

If we breakdown the cases by cancer type we can see there are 51 different types of cancer recorded in the Borders region. Obviously some cancers depend on gender but we can see here that some have a big effect on both men and women.

Looking closer at the data we can see which cancers are having the biggest effect across the Borders.

Conclusion

There seems to be an overall upward trend in the number of cases. If we know what the worst offenders are more resources could be channelled into targeted screenings, or general awareness campaigns around certain cancers to try to see if catching things early can help to save lives. Skin cancer in particular seems to be an issue in the Borders. It may also be worth looking to see if the same trends exists in other areas of Scotland or is there a particular reason certain cancers are more prominent in the Borders.